The landing mode features them raised up above the hull to allow for ground clearance the cruising mode has them level with the ship’s hull and finally the attack mode has them angled downward. The Bird of Prey design has three basic wing configurations, and the articulated wings on Diamond’s model allows for all three. It looks weathered and battle hardened and awesome. I’ve got nothing but praise for the paintwork on this piece. The Klingon writing and markings are all tampos rather than stickers, which goes a long way for both durability and realism. The red feathered coloring on the undercarriage of the wings is particularly nicely done, as is the brushed metal look of the black and silver grills of the engines. The coloring uses a mix of the base green plastic with all sorts of swirly brush strokes to convey weathering, different colored materials and panels. Sure, close inspection reveals a few hiccups, like the hollow pieces on the back by the engines and a little bit of seaming, again on the back, but I’ve got to remind myself, this is a $60 display piece and not a studio model. I’ve misspent a lot of time in my youth sketching the Bird of Prey from various movie stills and FASA books and the like, so I consider myself intimately familiar with the design, and this model does it proud. Hell, it’s easy to get lost in the intricate panels of the wings alone. There’s pipes and vents and all kinds of windows. There isn’t a square inch of this thing that doesn’t have some kind of sculpted detail. I always used to think the Playmates version looked good enough (well, at least until I looked at it recently), but damn this thing looks phenomenal. The stand does have to be fitted together, but it can easily be taken apart and the whole shebang can be returned to the box for storage. Anyway, it took me a while to get all the twisty wires off the ship and free it from its tray, but I’m very happy that the ship comes in one piece and doesn’t need to be assembled. Oddly is proclaims that the BoP was equipped with photon torpedoes, disrupters and… phasers? It’s been a long time since my days of pouring over the stats in FASA Star Trek ship catalogs, but I’m pretty sure I never saw mention of a phaser bank equipped on a Bird of Prey, but I’m guessing that occurred sometime in the Next Gen era. There’s a decent blurb about the Bird of Prey on the back, which correctly points out that the configuration of this ship was applied to various classes from small scouts to larger warships. The box’s deco is a blue cloudy-star motif, which doesn’t really fit Star Trek for me, and I would have much preferred the movie font over the old classic font because it just better fits the context of this ship. It’s a freaking massive window box, but with a wingspan of about 19-inches, the box housing this ship has to be big! The front of the package has a kind of weird trident design cut out to show you some of the detail on the ship’s hull. There are things I like about it and things I don’t. Word is that Diamond has revamped the packaging for this year’s releases, but seeing as I don’t own any of the past releases, I have no frame of reference. What’s the difference? Christopher Plummer’s goddamn voice, that’s what. ![]() This particular release, however, is based on the ship’s appearance in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. ![]() This now iconic ship design was first introduced in Star Trek III, it practically starred in Star Trek IV, and it subsequently appeared in every “Original Crew” movie produced since, including Generations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |